I have been hearing rumors about this movie for a while now, but for some reason, it has never been released. Much as War movies are not my thing, this was supposed to be another ground breaking cinematic achievement by the fabulous Izu Ojukwu, which is why I am featuring it here. The film features the late JT Tom West, who died last year, as the chief of the ECOMOG detachment; Francis Duru as a garrulous ECOMOG soldier; and Hank Anuku as a rebel. Joy Egbunu stars as Laviva. She loses her father to the war and openly demonstrates hostility towards the ECOMOG soldiers, in spite of admonition from her mother and other members of the community who feel it is dangerous to do so.
Laviva is also obsessed with the desire to bring peace to her country and along the line falls in love with the ECOMOG chief, JT Tom West. She is the rallying point for peace and stability among her peers and people at a time when many had lost their nerves to the weariness of war.
Produced by AMAA 2007 Best Director, Izu Ojukwu, the movie showcases the abundant talent in Nollywood, given the richness of its shooting, directing, costumes, editing and coordination. Shot three years ago, Laviva captures the tortuous experiences, intrigues and romance that played itself out when Nigerian troops led ECOMOG to salvage a country torn by civil war. It is a story of how Nigerian soldiers, in the midst of hate and fire, planted peace and hope.
There are very few Nollywood movies out there that would appeal to the male demographic. This looks like something the dudes will enjoy LOL! I hope it lives up the the promise. Oga Izu, abeg, release am o!!
So I came upon this star studded movie by accident. I was researching "Through the glass" and digging through Stephanie Okereke's website, when I came upon the most intriguing poster. I did some digging and found nothing everywhere I looked, so I forgot all about it.
However, it looks like now a trailer and a theme song have been released. Not only that, also sounds like it was recently premiered in Lagos. What I cannot understand is why there isn't any more noise about this movie, considering the caliber of stars involved.
It stars Stephanie Okereke, the scrumptious Ramsey Nouah, Francis Duru and also Van Vicker . And it is directed by my fav. Nolly director - Izu Ojukwu!! I am hyping it for the first two stars and the director obviously. I am still yet to get on the Van V. love train!! LOL.
Anyways, here is the trailer:
And the theme song:
While I can't seem to find a summary anywhere, the movie seems to be about orphans and their plight in Naija.
The force behind this Event Prince Tonye Princewill, the Rivers State AC and FOOPP Leader will be in attendance at the Premiere aimed at creating awareness of the plight of orphans in Nigeria.
The movie, according to the Rivers State born Producer, Adonijah Owiriwa is inspired by the plight of orphans in Africa hence the Orphan Child Awareness Campaign spearheaded by the Prince of Niger Delta Politics, Prince Tonye Princewill.
By his involvement in this project Prince Tonye Princewill intends to use his veritable network of contacts to throw light on the unfortunate plight of orphans with the hope of assuaging their suffering.
Sounds like good stuff. While I am not particularly crazy about the theme song, the trailer looks really good. I hope that we can get to see it soon. Will review it when I get my hands on it.
Preview: I bought this in a state of boredom and then promptly suffered from buyer’s remorse. I was so sure that I was going to hate it. Let’s just say that it eventually started to grow on me.
Trailer:
Synopsis: Francis Duru plays Ray, a guy who has just gotten engaged to Lisa (Mercy Johnson). They are celebrating the engagement when he collapses with a heart attack, and is rushed to the hospital. After mouthing some medical mumbo jumbo (that did not sound that accurate to me actually), the doctor finally tells his fiancée Lisa that his heart is damaged and he needs a heart transplant if he is to survive. Lisa cries a lot and does all she can, but all hope seems lost. Out of the blue however, a heart is found, donated by anonymous sources, and Ray survives. When he gets home from the hospital however, Ray seems to be very different, and Lisa soon starts to worry. What exactly is going on with him?
Review Positives: I was pretty sure I was gonna hate this movie, so even though I have had it for several weeks, I only just popped it into dvd player last night because I needed some background noise for some work I was doing. And it seemed like the first 30 minutes proved me right – excruciatingly bad. However, 3 things save this movie from being a total waste of time, and make it worthy of being reviewed on this site:
a) An unusual and very intriguing storyline – I am going to start off by congratulating the writer of the screenplay (Chisom Juliet Okereke) for this story, if it is original. I apologize for having to add that caveat, but there is a lot of copying in Nollywood unfortunately. However, that is another story for another day. I really liked this story – creative, interesting, taking the road less traveled. Nice! b) Mercy Johnson: First of all, when she was not over displaying her ample cleavage, Ms. Johnson looked really good in this movie. Not only was she looking lovely, she was fierce as an actress. FIERCE! I really enjoyed her performance. c) Barry Luck Uche (It says Barry Luke on the dvd sleeve), so I am not sure which is right. He played the role of Sam, the heart donor. Of all the miscasting done in the this movie, this guy was a gem – perfect peg in a perfect hole. I found his performance extremely intriguing. He has the gift that the greatest actors have – the ability to do things with his face while not saying much. First time seeing him, and I am intrigued. His role was central to the movie and he played the heck out of it. Very impressive.
I will give Francis Duru an honorable mention here – he was adequate for the role, although to be honest, I would not have cast him. Something about Francis as loverboy just does not sit well with me, although as the role expanded, he seemed to get more comfortable with all he was asked to do and be.
Technically, it was fine – picture, sound quality, all okay. Things really seem to be improving in that regard with Naija film.
Negatives: Hmmm, where do I start? In the first 30 minutes, I nearly shut off the movie because it looked like rotten cheese. There were two major problems a)Biola Ige – who played Lisa’s best friend, Emma and b) Remmy Ohajianya who played Lisa’s father. Daaaang! They were bad. In fact, the scenes where Lisa was crying and wailing about Ray and Emma had to either comfort her or talk sense into her , made up a large proportion of those first painful 30 minutes and were so baaad, I was sure that I was not going to survive the movie. If I had not been doing something else, I would have turned off the TV. Luckily I did not, because it gets so much better. Those two either need to invest in some heavy acting lessons, or they need to find another profession. Good heavens! Pure torture.
And why oh why, did they cast Francis Duru for this role? Like I said, he was adequate, but someone else could have been fantastic – I would have gone with Yemi Blaq, or Ramsey Nouah. There was very little chemistry between Francis and Mercy. When it comes to romantic scenes, when Mercy is feeling the dude acting opposite her, she does not hold back at all – but she was obviously not feeling Francis. It wasn’t horrible, but it could have been soooo much better (sigh).
In addition, like I earlier mentioned, some of the hospital terminology was not really working for me. And neither were the hospital scenes. The life support machinery looked kinda scanty. And some of the hospital protocol observed, like giving medical diagnoses in front of some unknown best friend – blah!
Towards the end, some of it started to get irrational, illogical. We need to learn how to wrap up movies properly. Once again, as is my constant complaint, the gradual movement towards the resolution was kinda cheap. Towards the end, I begun to roll my eyes – like really? REALLY? That is your reaction? How does that make any sense???
Underlying theme/lessons/worldview/philosophy: Deciding to solve a problem by taking a selfish short cut might seem good in the short run, but leads to all kinds of complications in the long run. As the bible puts it in Prov 16:25: There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. I liked that moral and message. However, it also crossed my mind that some superstitious people (a group we have in abundance in our society) may take the events in this movie waaay too seriously and build a case against organ transplants based on that – which I doubt was the point of the movie.
Bottomline: While it seems like I am hating on it, there were parts of it that I really enjoyed. Honestly. So give it a try. You just need to get through the horrible beginning. And don’t be traumatized by the three parts. Each part is roughly an hour, so its not that bad.
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